Footage just released moments ago captures an awful physical attack by members of the University of New Mexico’s Israel Alliance on pro-Palestine activists. From the video it appears that the attackers were predominately older white males while the victims of the attacked were mostly young college age girls. The victims are viciously pulled and shoved to the ground. The perpetrators of the attack make clear attempts to reach and grab the victims personal property while those who couldn’t get their hands on the students, yelled out obscenities and cursed the students. Some confused members of the audience began chanting “U.S.A!”

You can watch footage of the attack here:

The students were protesting an Israel Alliance event tonight hosting Nonie Darwish. Nonie Darwish is an Egyptian-American anti-Arab/Muslim activist, and founder of Arabs for Israel. Nonie Darwish exploits Islamophobia for every penny its worth and capitalizes on ignorance in order to further her own name at the expense of 1.5 billion people. She authored the book Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror. Penguin Books published it under its Sentinel imprint which is its special line of conservative titles. In her book, Darwish uses blurbs from the usual gang: Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz, Robert Spencer, Bat Ye’Or, former Senator Rick Santorum, Representative Tom “Nuke Mecca” Tancredo, and General Paul Vallely (an advocate for the final ethnic cleansing of all Palestinian citizens of Israel).

Having been born and raised in New Mexico, I consider myself an honorary Lobo. As such I can’t help but feel proud of the young men and women who spoke up for the voiceless in the face of ignorance and bigotry with unlimited courage and resilience.

The ‘mic check’ carried out by (Un)Occupy Albuquerque tonight is not a form of protest foreign to Palestinian Activism. In fact, it is part of a larger wave of protests taking place on university campus’s all over the country serving to expose to lies perpetrated by the likes of Nonie Darwish and others. And now, thanks to UNM’s Israel Alliance, they are only going to be amplified.

Khader Adnan is a 33 year old Palestinian baker from the city of Nablus who has been held in administrative detention by Israel without charge since December 17th, 2011. He has been on a hunger strike since then in protest of the humiliation and injustice he is facing. Khader has just entered his 66th day. Doctors warn that he may die at any moment. Please keep him in your prayers and do what you can to help spread the word!

In this video, posted online yesterday, Khader Adnan can be seen and heard yelling “The strike will continue until there is freedom and dignity.” I could not help but tear up upon watching this. Khader Adnan’s determination and resilience is unparalleled. His steadfastness in the face of oppression, humiliation and death is beyond remarkable. You can watch the Amy Goodman’s report on Democracy Now below:

The moment I stopped believing in the 2 state solution was the moment I realized that the path to freedom for Palestine travels through the Palestinian people. Many in the Palestinian community continue to have hope in negotiations and the so called ‘peace process’ due to a belief that only Israel can improve our condition. Our problems will never be solved by Israel; we must solve them on our own. One of the most fatal flaws we can make is to fall in the trap of defining the conflict in the same manner as the oppressor.

The 2 state solution represents the consensus among western power elites and some Arab elites regarding how to produce ambiguous conditions for how to preserve and legitimize Israeli land grabs and colonization. Refugee rights and the sharp dichotomy between the actions of the Palestinian Authority and the desires of the Palestinian people are negated entirely.

Support for the 2 state solution stems predominately from a commitment to preserving Israel as a state where Jews enjoy political, civil, economic, military and cultural supremacy. The 2 state solution is a last ditch effort to save Zionism as a practice of racial supremacy, and to dress it up as legitimate and consensual.

In order for the 2 state solution to be doable Palestine, the Palestinian people, and their rights must be contained and ignored.

I personally do not believe that it is within the nature of Zionism to change its attitude towards Palestinians. Zionism cannot and will not define the future of the Palestinian people. We Palestinians must begin to view ourselves as possessing the agency to transform our lives and ourselves. We must believe that as Palestinians, we are destined for freedom, justice, and greatness.

I view our struggle as a struggle for equal rights in the context of an apartheid state. It is no longer a conflict surrounding an occupation and its removal. The occupation has evolved into structural and institutionalized apartheid. The current day conflict needs to be defined by what it is, not by what Israel and the West would like it to be. With that in mind, I view myself first and foremost as a Palestinian. In our struggle for equal rights we do not strive to be Israeli, but rather equals as Palestinians.

Moving forward, the Palestinian cause must be expanded into an international campaign for human rights. The wheels are already beginning to turn in that direction as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement continues to gain traction and grow. However, it remains that the central forum for change in Palestine will never be anyone or anything other than the Palestinian people.

This post is a copy of an Action Alert currently circulating on Facebook. I decided to post it here in order to further spread awareness and participation. Please take 5 minutes to express your solidarity with Khader Adnan, who is being illegally imprisoned by Israel without charge and is entering the 57th day of his hunger strike.

We need to act swiftly because Khader could die at any moment and the faster we move, the better chance we have to raise awareness about his situation and put pressure on Israel and our governments through social media campaigns like this.

PLEASE HAVE ALL SUBMISSIONS IN BY FEBRUARY 13. You can either send your videos directly to forkhaderadnan@gmail.com or upload them to YouTube and email us the link to your video so we can download it for compilation.

Thanks for all the help and quick action.

In Solidarity

Script Example:

I am Abeer Jaber, I am from the United States, I stand in solidarity with Khader Adnan and ask the Israeli government to release him immediately.

WHAT: Peaceful Silent Demonstration in solidarity with political prisoner Khader Adnan who has been on Huger Strike in Israeli Prison for 53 days. http://bit.ly/w5qjBf
WHEN: Tomorrow February 8, 2012 at 5:00 PM
WHERE: Dupont Circle, meeting by the fountain
WHY: Stand in solidarity with Khader and all political prisoners in a peaceful demonstration tomorrow
WHAT TO BRING: Wear Black and Bring a Blindfold

On Thursday September 29, 2011 the GW Hatchet published an advertisement paid for by the David Horowitz Freedom Center entitled “The Palestinians’ Case Against Israel is Based on a Genocidal Lie.”

For those of you who don’t know him, David Horowitz is a Marxist turned Conservative. Most of his work is directed at preventing alleged leftist indoctrination from taking place in American academic institutions. Moreover, he is known for his hateful and broad generalizations of Muslims, Arabs and African Americans. He has accused the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda and Hamas. In May 2008, Horowitz, speaking at UCSB, accused the Muslim Students’ Association of supporting “a second Holocaust of the Jews”.

In his most recent ad in The Hatchet, Horowitz presented such egregious historical fallacies that his advertisement in my opinion does not merit a response. Claims such as the suffering of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is due solely to “Arab aggression”, Israel does not occupy Palestine, Palestine is Turkish and not Arab, labeling criticism of Israel as “Jew hate” only to mention a few. However, if you are interested in debunking Horowitz’s claims, a trip to the U.N.’s website and reading up on U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 would be a quick remedy. It goes without saying that Horowitz is oblivious to the realities of history and is blinded by his own hatred and personal agenda. It should be noted that Horowitz has never been to Israel or Palestine.

As an American I am all for freedom of speech in all of it shapes and forms. I also recognize a newspapers right to publish any advertisement it wishes. However, at the same time, with such great freedom comes even greater responsibility. Why would The Hatchet make the conscious decision to publish such a racist, discriminatory and inaccurate ad? Would the Hatchet have agreed to publish it if the words Arab/Palestinian were replaced with “Black”, “Homosexual” or even “Jew”? There is a clear double standard here when it comes to the Palestinian cause. And to be fair this is not just limited to the Hatchet by any means, quite the contrary. This double standard allowing for wide open Arab bashing exists throughout all levels of mainstream media in this country. But that is no justification or excuse for The Hatchet further contributing to the marginalization of the Palestinian people and their noble cause for freedom and justice. Moreover, such actions marginalize all subjugated people. Attacking one group based on such a baseless and historically impaired view is a threat to all those who have long suffered under the steel boot of occupation and imperialism.

This is not the first time The Hatchet has gotten heat for publishing one of Horowitz ads. On April 14, 2008 Horowitz purchased a half page ad on the second page of The Hatchet that made entirely false allegations against the Muslim Student Association here on our very own campus. The ad claimed that the Muslim Student Association is “a radical political group that was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the godfather of al Qaeda and Hamas, to bring the jihad into the heart of American higher education.” On April 21st, 2008 The Hatchet issued a response saying, “The Hatchet does not stand behind this message. It is slightly ludicrous to even ponder the idea that the MSA is a radical group in Foggy Bottom.” The same article went on to promise that the Hatchet is “…now working on a revamped policy which will provide more stringent guidelines for advertisements. Horowitz’s advertisement was inflammatory and, on second review, may not have passed our test of decency.”

It is clear that no such revamping of The Hatchet took place, as Horowitz was successful in using The Hatchet as a platform to spew his hate speech and historical fallacies for a second time. The Hatchet has the moral duty not to let their power and influence be used to enable unsubstantiated racism and bigotry. To this end, The Hatchet has shown a tremendous lack of professionalism.

According to the David Horowitz Freedom Center, the advertisement was sent out to at least 65 different college newspapers for publication. Over 50 of the schools refused to publish it. Even considering the history The Hatchet has with Horowitz’s ads and the huge fiasco it led to in the past, The Hatchet was one of the 15 colleges newspapers that irresponsibly carried the ad. I hope that this time, the uproar cause by Horowtiz’s ad in the Hatchet will help guide future Hatchet editors on advertising policy.

On the 17th of December 2011 (53 days ago), Khader Adnan began his hunger strike in protest of his ill-treatment in Israeli detention and his arbitrary detention without charge or trial (known as Administrative Detention).

He is in danger of dying at any moment. His wife, Randa, who saw him for the first time since his detention today described his condition as rapidly deteriorating and that he has lost a third of his weight and his hair.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

1.Call and demand the release of Khader Adnan, who has not been charged with any crime but instead is being held under Administrative Detention.

Other ideas for actions and a letter-writing template can be found on this action alert from Samidoun (The Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network).

See Amnesty International’s report and appeal to action.

Khader Adnan, the father of two daughters and with a third child on the way, is a baker, a Masters student in Economics at Birzeit University, and a political activist. Khader, was arrested on December 17, 2011 by masked soldiers who raided his home in the middle of the night (the village of Arrabe near Jenin in the occupied West Bank). Between the 18th and the 29th of January 2012, he was subjected to almost daily cruel and inhumane interrogations. During interrogations, he was shackled to a crooked chair with his hands tied behind his back in a position that caused him back pain. He said that interrogators threatened him constantly and verbally abused him and his family.

Khader was given a four-month administrative detention order on January 8, 2012. Khader’s interrogation period has ended but he refuses to accept the unjust system of administrative detention [more details], continuing his strike on the principle that such detention is a violation of his rights and identity. Administrative detention, a regular practice of the Israeli occupation, violates the internationally-recognized right to a fair trial. International standards for fair trial must be upheld for all political detainees, including those accused of violence, even under states of emergency. A military judge reviewed the administrative detention order on February 1, 2012 and is expected to inform lawyers of her decision later on this week.

Meanwhile, Khader’s health is deteriorating rapidly and doctors don’t expect him to be able to survive for much longer.

A peaceful revolution…a revolution against foreign intervention…a revolution against sectarianism and factions.This is the revolution of the Syrian people we know.

For ten months now the Syrian people have marched towards freedom and we have no doubt that they will achieve their liberation. For this reason we see it as a duty to warn them of the dangers of foreign intervention and to express our support for their peaceful revolution against sectarianism and factions.

For ten months the Syrian people have marched steadily towards freedom, despite the criminal oppression of Bashar al-Assad’s regime which uses weapons against its own people, instead of using them to liberate their occupied land, and despite the disagreements among their representatives whom the people gave trust in.

For ten months the Syrian people have marched towards freedom as martyr after martyr is sacrificed, which has only strengthened their resolve and steadfastness to continue their march.

For ten months the Syrian people have marched towards freedom as the world analyzes the meanings behind slogans raised in protests, and satellite channels have garnered more viewers with the increase in bloodshed and murders. The media sells to its viewers talks of a conspiracy or of a civil war, and many powers, sells us their support to freedom or democracy in the Middle East, when they never did. We are confident that these plots will fail and be crushed under the feet of the Syrian Arab People.

Ten months and we have avoided watching the disfigured bodies and the brave women who do not fear facing the live ammunition. Ten months and we chose which channel to hear from about the news of 30, 70, 100 martyrs of Syria, which made us ashamed from our miserable show of solidarity, as at the end of every day dozens of families lose their sons and daughters, with seemingly no one to share their pain with.

We, Palestinian activists and bloggers, on the Global Day of Rage for Syrian Revolution, stress our support for the brave revolutionary Syrians. We strongly reject manipulating the Palestinian cause as a cover under which the Syrian martyrs’ bodies are brushed under and stamped upon by Bashar al-Assad’s regime. It is true we must think logically about the dynamics of the Syrian revolution, but we must put the overwrought analyses aside, because the cost is the blood of our Syrian brothers and sisters. We reiterate our support for the peaceful Syrian revolution and its rejection of foreign intervention amidst the threats of sectarianism, as without our solidarity and faith we have no right in theorizing and preaching to the Syrians who are being murdered one after the other.